By JAKE POTTER

Whiteville’s pending budget for the 2007 fiscal year is calling for an end to the city’s recycling program.

The budget cites a hike in trash collection fees by Waste Management, the city’s trash services provider, as the reason behind the recommendation. The city and Waste Management are scheduled to renegotiate their contract.

Council member Terry Mann said officials have pushed to cut the program based on small resident usage figures.

“Susan (Rhodes, city manager) recommended we do away with recycling,” Mann said. “According to her figures from Waste Management, less than 25 percent of citizens are recycling.”

Mayor Dial Gray said the program isn’t running efficiently, either.

“Basically nobody in Whiteville was recycling,” he said, “but if you look at the containers that were being used, a lot of them were just being dumped with the regular trash.”

Mann said he is disappointed with the infrequent usage among residents.

“I do notice when I’m driving around town on Mondays or Tuesdays that there aren’t a lot of people that recycle,” he said. “You can go down a street and see one bin for every four or five houses.”

Members of the Whiteville City Council indicated they were supportive of ending the program at a recent workshop, Gray said, adding that the issue comes down to cost-effectiveness.

“The consensus was to do away with it,” he said. “We were paying extra for the recycling but nothing was coming out of it.”

“I don’t think it would be a very popular decision to raise fees,” Mann added. “My opinion is, even if only 25 percent of people are using the service, it is worth it.

“I don’t know if the citizens would want to pay that extra tax money, though.”

Mann said he is looking into alternative programs, such as one offered in Wrightsville Beach, which could provide a recycling outlet for the city if the program were to be scrapped.

“I’d like to see that happen if that were the case,” he said. “My concern is that the town is saying that this isn’t as important.”